Nicodem
Overview Nicodem, informally "Nico", is the zombie horde lord; able to easily buff and heal his own crew as well as summon new models into the game. While not an offensive caster like Sonnia or Rasuptina, Nico is adept at drowning his opponents in a sea of powerful undead minions. He is very reliant on the generation of Corpse counters and must manage this resource well to succeed. Resilience Despite his pneumatic leg, Nicodem has a Wk of 5. This means he won't have any trouble keeping up with his crew of undead. He has no charge stat which is your best hint that being in close combat is a bad idea for this master and almost nothing good can come of it. On the flip side though, lacking of Cg range is in fact good against certain lure-like attacks as Nicodem will only stay and laugh out loud at the desperate enemy trying to lure him out. Offense For Ml, there is simply nothing to speak of, so he has no access to disengage striking. Decay A heal and deal spell, with blast damage and blast healing of 2 on your friendly undead. Since it's a has no gun icon, there's no randomization or benefits from soft cover. Decay is what you keep the low cards in your hand for, it is much easier to get the blasts in if you target your own models in combat, cheat in a low card for their defensive flip and then catch the enemy (or multiple enemies!) with the blast template. Nothing fustrates an opponent more that watching his models take damage from the same attack that heals your undead. The Desiccation trigger allows you to discard a nearby (8") corpse Marker to fully heal one of the Undead Healed by the action, while this seems like a worthwhile trigger, it is more of a trap as each Corpse counter discarded this way could have been used to create an entirely new undead minion instead. (1) Rigor Mortis An offenseive cast which grants Slow to the target or Fast if it's a friendly undead. This essentially trades ones of Nico's Ap to deny the opponent one or give one of your other models one. With a double Crow trigger, he can also have the target suffer 3 damage, which can make the slowing trade very much worth the investment. This competes for AP with Nicodem's reanimate ability. Is giving one model an extra AP better than summoning in another model that will contribute 2 AP per turn that it is alive. If you are out of corpse tokens and have an AP left Rigor Mortis is more than worth while, however 2 AP per turn is more efficient and Malifaux is a game of AP. One general good use of Slow is that enemy with only 1 AP cannot charge at you, this is good against enemy heavy hitters so consider wisely to take the chances. Mobility Despite his pneumatic leg, Nicodem has a Wk of 5. This means he won't have any trouble keeping up with his crew of undead. He has no charge stat which is your best hint that being in close combat is a bad idea for this master and almost nothing good can come of it. On the flip side though, lacking of Cg range is in fact good against certain lure-like attacks as Nicodem will only stay and laugh out loud at the desperate enemy trying to lure him out. Upgrades Maniacal Laugh This ability turns all corpse counters within 8 inches into Mindless Zombies. This can be a helpful supply of disposable minions. Combine this with Reaper Grin for a steady supply of zombie fodder to protect the master. This can be used to quickly start out activating your opponent and keep your unused corpse counters moving to where you need them. Necrotic King Gives the spell (1) Undead Crowning. With a moderate card from any suit, this gives friendly undead models bonuses to damage flips and casting actions. They already have a plus to Ml attacks, so this can really stack of the damage. This combined with some of the other auras available from Resurrectionist models (Toshiro the Daimyo see below) can make your wandering pack of Undead devastating inside its little bubble. Love Thy Master This upgrade gives Companion to any moel Nicodem summons during his turn. This lets Nicodem summon a minion into place, give it Fast, then activate it before the opposing player can respond. It can be a scary thing to have a Fast Punk Zombie with Companion summoned in base contact with your master and have four attacks (1+ 3 from Flurry), each at a double plus flip to attack and plus to damage (combined with Necrotic King). Reaper Grin A powerful defensive upgrade, this provides a trigger on a Crow that lets Nicodem sacrifice a friendly undead model to cancel a hit with a Crow Df trigger. This upgrade provides The Fog, which allows Nicodem to put up an aura of soft cover to keep himself and his minions safe. This is a great reason to keep low Crows around, and is an essential upgrade if you know your going up against a powerful ranged crew (Guild). Undertaker This upgrade lets Nicodem draw cards when undead models are killed or sacrificed, which is nice since most of the summons will only come into play with half wounds. Undertaker also lets Nicodem discard additional corpse counters as he summons a model to heal it, althought it tends to be more effective on large wound undead (Flesh Constructs). This is an excellent way to ensure that you have the proper cards for Re-animator actions later on (using the Corpse counters created by the dying undead). Generally a must have. Shadow Embrace Gives friendly models in an 8" aura Welcoming Pain, allowing them to heal 1 damage instead of taking poison damage. Combined with Mortimer's Fling Rot to poison your own models, you can effectively give your models regeneration. The upgrade also Nicodem the Empty Vessel trigger on Decay. With a Tome, if you kill the target you can immediately use Re-animator at a +2 Ca. Tactics and Tips Success with Nicodem can be very reliant on access to corpse counters, to fuel new minions and some abilities and as such including models in his crew that can generate free Corpse counters (not created by killing models) can be of great benefit to him. Models such as Mortimer and Canine Remains can easily do this as well as some upgrades like Corpse Bloat. Its also important to keep a good pile of tall bodies ( Flesh Constructs) around to block LoS for shooting attacks and Lures as the easiest way to defeat your crew is to attack the key models like Nicodem himself, or Mortimer. Toshiro the Daimyo makes an excellent henchmen for Nicodem as he generates his own 6' aura giving positive flips to attack actions, combined with Corpse Conductor and Necrotic King, decent models like a Punk Zombies become beasts capable of dropping powerful models ( +3 attack Flips, +1 damage flips, +1 Defensive flips, Fast from Toshiro). Toshiro also makes a decent bodyguard with his Hard to Wound (2), larger base that makes blocking LoS easier,and his (0) action that gives Fast to a friendly minion. Buffing This is where Nicodem really shines, more than most other masters in the game. Reanimator This spell has the largest summoning pool without exception. The TN is 10+ the SS cost of the minion, and he needs an additional Crow off the flip/cheat. It's not rare to drop a Soulstone to add the Crow into this. The model comes into play with 1/2 of its Wd's lost. This spell is important for any scheme as it allows Nicodem to quickly and easily make whatever minions he needs to accomplish his goals. if you need some roadblocks, make yourself some Flesh Constructs. Not getting there fast enough? Summon some Necropunks! There is no limit on it as well so Nicodem is capable of making up to 3 new undead each turn! It is not impossible to have more than double the size of your crew by the end of a game(My personal record is 42SS in a 50SS game ). This one of the tactical debates that I often have when playing: do i use an action point on a Decay to heal my undead 2 wounds or just make a new one and let the other die? If it dies it makes me another corpse counter so its always a hard decision :) (1) Rigor Mortis This was already mentioned for Offense, but is also used as a buff. The same goes for (1) Decay for the healing. Decayalso comes with a trigger to use a corpse counter to heal a model that was healed fully instead of only 2 points. That's great for keeping those Flesh Constructs alive, and more efficient than summoning them back again. Leading a Crew Soulstones Nicodem has a decent cache of 3 Soulstones. While this is a decent amount Nicodem can do very well with a high cache and I have found it best myself to max this out in every game to 7. Nicodem functions best when you have as many Crows as possible in your hand and as such most turns its is a good idea to burn a Soulstone for the additional 2 cards at draw time. This lets you cycle faster it find all those Crows you need. Getting the Crows into your hand is much better than having to use the Soulstone later to add a suit to a casting of Re-Animator. Re-animator Malifaux seems to come down to action point management as a key component, and because of this, I never cast re-animator unless know i am going to succeed with the casting, or I couldn't find anything better to do with the Action point (rare). If I do not have the Crow in my hand to cast the spell, I will use a Soulstone to add a Crow to the casting in advance so that I only have to worry about the total itself.Building a Crew Mortimer is a fairly essential assistant for Nicodem as with the right upgrades he can generate 2 free corpse counters (not generated from a dying model) per turn for Nicodem's use. Canine Remains can do this as well but because they don't have the Crow built into their Find a Bone action, they will fail more often or eat into your vital supply of Crow cards. sometimes it can be effective to have a few and cross your fingers and in the worst case you can always kill them for the corpse counters yourself. There are only a few Resurrectionist models that you cannot summon later on so these are usually the best to look at first when building your crews. Bete Noire is an excellent delaying model and has some uses, Madame Sybelle is excellent to have around if you like to summon Rotten Belles. Nurses have some synergies as well. Izamu can be a brutal enforcer with all the buffs that Nicodem gives off. This leads to the one downside to playing Nicodem as a Master, his versatility is only useful as your collection of undead models. This can lead to a greater cost as far as having a effective crew. Strategy and Schemes Nicodem can play most Strategies and Schemes easily as he has the tools to change his Crew composition very quickly and on the fly. The exception to this is killing bases strategies as he thrives on summoning half damaged models into the game, it makes it much easier for opponents to kill off models. Playing Against Nicodem is really the heart of his crew, and removing him will make dealing with the rest of his crew much simpler. Failing that, pulling models away from Nicodem with abilities such as Lure or Drag will make them easier to deal with. Targeting models that generate free Corpse counters (not from dying models) is also an excellent way to limit his effectiveness. It can shutdown a Nicodem crew's summoning ability simply by luring Mortimer out and shooting him to death. Blasts Another downside to all the powerful auras that work so well with Nicodem is that he is frequently grouped up very tightly, which makes powerful blasting attacks like Sonnia and Rasputina (shudder) very deadly against his crews. Ownership Portions of the materials used are copyrighted works of Wyrd Miniatures, LLC, in the United States of America and elsewhere. All rights reserved, Wyrd Miniatures, LLC. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Wyrd Miniatures, LLC. Unless otherwise stated, all names and images on this site are property of Wyrd Miniatures, LLC. (Link (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.)